Hoyer Statement on the Continuing Resolution

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today regarding the need for a Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government running:

“I am going to vote for this continuing resolution because the alternative – the shutdown of the federal government – is simply unacceptable. However, our enactment of this legislation must not be construed as an exoneration of the sheer fiscal mismanagement of this Republican Congress over the last four and a half years.

“Let’s not mince words: This Republican Congress is failing our nation, and the American people deserve change. Again this year, the Majority has failed to complete its appropriations work on time. Only two spending bills – for the Interior Department and the Legislative Branch – have been signed by the President. That is bad enough.

“But what is far worse is that the Republican Majority – due to its obsession with tax cuts at a time of war and its unwillingness to make hard choices – has marched our nation right back to the precipice of debilitating deficits and debt.

“Republican Congressman Flake of Arizona, wrote the following statement yesterday in the Wall Street Journal: ‘Whether we want to admit it or not, the Republican Congress’s failure to discipline itself
is sending us all down a flower-strewn path to financial insolvency.’

“Even that admonition is understatement. In less than five years, this Republican Administration and Republican Congress turned a projected 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion into a projected deficit of $4 trillion.

“The Congressional Budget Office projects that our deficit for Fiscal 2005 will be $331 billion – the third worst deficit in American history. And, even that figure fails to include the $62.3 billion that we have appropriated for hurricane relief and recovery.

“I urge my Republican colleagues: Take off your rose-colored glasses, and join us in making the hard choices that the American people sent us here to make. Unless we face fiscal reality, we will sink this nation in a sea of red ink that could cripple us for years to come."